Question for the Feedlot folks

[magpie]

Prior to BSE, how were Canadian carcasses and boxed beef products graded in the USA?
I hear over and over from people in the industry and restaurant Chef's that our barley fed product is superior to grain fed. Is this why the American's are stalling on this Country of origin labelling?

[Horse]

Even prior to that when corn was being brought in to feed our western canadian barley fed beef I sure had to wonder how the feedlots would get around that and still claim superority of our product I guess it is all the bottom line no matter how you cut it.

[Horse]

Sory, I did mean Barley compared to Corn Fed.

[cakadu]

Good point. I wondered how they were going to claim "Alberta grain fed beef" when it was fed with corn. Sometimes we don't want to stop at a good thing.

We seem to be bent on throwing away what differentiates us in the marketplace. What makes us do that?

[pandiana]

There was a study on Research News in Cattlemen Mag. that addressed this question. If I recall correctly, although corn fed had a different color, palatability was excellent and in some cases preferable. I think is is a matter of what you get used to.

[ALICIA]

I grain feed my cattle and in the mix is oats, barley, corn, minerals and malasis. As far as I know, I think of corn as in the grain family.

[15444]

Out of all of the corn-fed beef I have ever eaten, I found that it is more tender then grain-fed beef, but is not nearly as desirable taste and flavour-wise.

[cakadu]

It is definitely a matter of taste. Some of the cattle in Australia are grazed on turnips for a good portion of their diet. Now there's a taste that one has to get used to.

[GrnAsMoss]

Corn puts on a soft yellow fat, something American beef is famous for. Barley puts on a white, harder more marbled fat mmmm.
I think BSE and the red meat markets are being recognized by the powers that be and they are concerned about burdening the red meat industry with point of origin labeling. At least I hope they're holding off for us. Just when the markets bounce back and the borders open up I predict the labeling will take effect.

[cowman]

One time in Washington state we were at a lake and having a barbeque. We drove into town and bought these big thick steaks that were clearly advertized as US corn fed prime steaks. They were juicy and tender...and tasted like cardboard! If I had to eat that...well I can see why they like chicken so much down there!( Oh as a side note...I had an Aussie grass fed steak one time in Montanas. It was tough and gristly and tasted really bad...I sent it back and had chicken!)
Western feedlots never fed any corn when the Americans were busy trying to fill up Alberta with subsidized corn. Their big steak house customer out of California told them if they fed corn then they didn't want the product. So Western bit the bullet and payed the $3.50/bu. for barley rather than the $1.85/bu. corn! I guess that tells you what kind of premium they were getting?

[rain]

Cowman when barley was $3.50 delivered corn was not $1.85.

[Ron]

I work in south america 3-6 weeks a year and I assume the steaks are grass fed BUT they are damn good. I am in the us 8-16 weeks each winter and the meat is generally tough, tasteless and overpriced. I have been told you have to cook grass fed at lower temps but I dont know for sure.

[cakadu]

Correct Ron. You have to cook it slower and/or with some sort of liquid because there isn't the fat content so it has to be kept moist somehow. Same goes for buffalo, wild meat and anything else that is lean.

[cowman]

Actually rain my neighbor sold barley to Western Feedlots at $3.53 with the plumpness bonus factored in at the same time they were quoting corn landed in Lethbridge at $1.85.

[rain]

Corn never came into lethbridge at $1.85. $3.53 barley is $162/MT corn was always with in $5-$10 per metric tonne of barley that year above and below barley